US charges three Malaysian state telecoms officials for fraud

The United States has charged three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia (TM) for allegedly misappropriating over $20 million from the Malaysian state telecommunications firm, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday.



Mohd Hafiz Lockman, Mohd Yuzaimi Yusof, and Khanh Thuong Nguyen, who were senior executives at the U.S. subsidiary of TM, were accused of using false statements and forged records to siphon funds from the company and deceive counterparties, suppliers, auditors and supervisors in the United States on various occasions between July 2020 and February 2026, authorities said.



"These three individuals are alleged to have conducted a deliberate and calculated embezzlement scheme, falsifying corporate records for their own financial benefit," FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said in a statement.



Mohd Hafiz was arrested at San Francisco airport, while the other two accused turned themselves in to authorities last month. The trio were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, the DOJ said.



The DOJ said it declined to file charges against TM itself, after the company self-reported the criminal conduct and pledged to cooperate with authorities.



The defendants were accused of diverting millions of dollars from TM into bank accounts they controlled, according to the U.S. indictment.